


My Lord

by Squiddly_Diddily



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eye Gouging, Eye Trauma, Gore, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Mild Gore, Minor Violence, Multi, Multiple Pairings, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Torture, Possibly Unrequited Love, Post-Canon, Rivalry, Slow Burn, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-04-13 20:06:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14119809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squiddly_Diddily/pseuds/Squiddly_Diddily
Summary: Nemesis Prime was snatched away by Straxus shortly after creation to live on Lucifer, but Nemesis dreams of leaving the planet and his Master behind for a better life.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nemsis was snatched away by Starxus not too long after his creation. It's been a few stellar cycles since they last heard anything from Megatron after he confirmed he was alive. Megatron made his orders clear, "Do not attack any Autobots without my command." so they have been waiting on that order. Nemesis Prime has been demoted from war general to lowly security officer in the meantime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TFA has a canon Nemesis Prime but they didn't really get to do anything with him so I will! My city now!
> 
> This fic takes place in an alternate universe of Transformers Animated. Some bots that may have died will be alive and some will have their factions switched.

Nemesis Prime sat in front of the monitor with one hand balled to a fist resting against his cheek, optics focusing from one video to another as he monitored various Decepticons throughout the fortress.

It's been only a few stellar cycles since he was brought to the planet Lucifer by Straxus.  
Within that short time Nemesis Prime went from chore bot, to army general, then begrudgingly to Straxus’ security bot.  
Straxus had became so power hungry that he gave himself multiple positions, the planet's king, all seats of government, army general, and sometimes even calling himself their God. All Decepticons on the planet are to do whatever they are told or else they get smelted. Sometimes Straxus would just smelt a bot for the hell of it if the week had been slow, but he's kept Nemesis around no matter what, something that Nemesis is somewhat grateful for, even if he did wish the old bot would just fall over and offline.

Nemesis knows a lot of bots in Tartarus, the last occupied city on Lucifer, by name but doesn't really get to be around them. The only two bots he knows personally since onlining are Starxus and the only medic on the planet, Ambulon, which has caused him to be a bit socially awkward and aloof. He does his job well though, even if he wished something exciting would happen every now and then

He watches the screens, seeing the others work and rest, processor filled with thoughts of how bored he is. He just wants something exciting, a brawl or something. Anything!

"Nemesis!" Straxus yelled from his gold and black ornate throne across the room, snapping the Prime's attention from the video feed to his leader, "How are the workers in the ship bay doing?”

"Working harder than ever, master." Nemesis responds.

“Good, good. And Ambulon’s medibay?”

“Not very busy at the moment, master.”

“And the storage room?”

“Everything seems to be in place, master.”

“Alright.” Straxus slouches in his throne.

Nemesis goes back to watching the feed. Hours pass by with nothing but the same old same old. It's almost enough to make Nemesis nod off, but he knows better. If he did fall asleep on the job Straxus would activate the bright yellow shock collar around the bot's neck, something he'd prefer to avoid. Just as he gets lost in thought something on the screen catches his attention. A bot falling from a tall ladder in the ship bay. 

“Looks like Ripapart had an accident, master.”

“Finally some entertainment!” The large mech boasts, “What happened?”

“He fell from a high ladder in the ship bay, looks like he's being hauled to Ambulon right now.”

“The ship bay? Frag. I told him to recalibrate all the ship guns today,” he says rubbing his chin, “Nemesis, go down to the ship bay and take over for him!”

“Wait? Really?” Nemesis looks back in confusion. 

Straxus begins furrowing his brow ridge at the small bot.

“I mean yes! Of course master!” Nemesis jumps up and salutes before rushing out the door and down the hall.

\----------

"Well it looks like everything is good to go. If we invade a neighboring planet soon they'll stand no chance." Nemesis stated to himself as he closed a fusion cannon panel, giving it a pat before he started making his way down the ladder.

“Not a bad job for a moniter bot." A voice teased from the right of him as Nemesis steps down. He turns to scowl at the bot, seeing a tall, purple and black Deception with a scarred face and bright red optics leaning against the ship he was working on.

Nemesis lets out a low growl and punches him, knocking the Decepticon flat on his aft, "Do not mock me!" he snarls. "Hey now I was just messing with you there friend." The Decepticon says standing back up and brushing his legs off. "I meant no harm by it, we've all been stripped of titles here." The Decepticon extends his servo out to Nemesis. Nemesis tries to swat his servo away but the large bor grabs his arm and throws him face down on the ground, twisting Nemesis’ arm behind his back. Nemesis screams out in pain, this attracts the attention of the other bots near them and they start to form a circle around the two. "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" they chant as they start to place bets on who will win, fists pumping in the air. "Would you look at that, we've attracted a crowd, better give them a good show." The larger mech says with a wink and a smirk as he starts twisting Nemesis' arm even further, snapping a few wires in the process. "Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" Nemesis thinks fast and uses his free arm to grab a wrench that laid out in front of a toolbox nearby, he twists his body back to smack the mech in the face with it, knocking him to the ground. "Rrrraaaaahhhggg! You little glitch!" The Decepticon shouts as he lays on the floor, cradling his face with both servos. Nemesis picks himself up and gets into a fighting stance as the crowd continues to cheer and yell. The other Decepticon stands with one servo still on his face, other arm bending to defend himself from any oncoming attack. “ENOUGH!" A voice boomed from the crowd. The crowd dispersed to reveal a purple and steel blue Decepticon with a medical symbols painted on his arms. It was Ambulon with his arms crossed and a big scowl across his face. "Both of you! In my office! Now!" 

\----------

Nemesis sat pouting outside of Ambulon's office as the mech took care of the other bot. He was staring at the bleak grey walls, lost in his own thoughts when Ambulon's office door slides open.

"Stay in the waiting area." Ambulon orders the other bot as he motions for him to sit, "Nemesis Prime you can come back now.”

Nemesis enters the doctor's office and is motioned to take a seat on the exam table. Nemesis sits as Ambulon opens a drawer to get the proper medical supplies to fix his arm.

“Doc-" Nemesis starts to talk but is cut off.

"Nemesis you know you can just call me Ambulon when we're alone. Tje cameras don't have sound, love." The doctor says in a flat tone.

"Ambulon...sorry.”

“For what?” The doctor asks as he opens a panel on Nemesis' arm and proceeds to use complex tools to fix the wiring.

“For starting a fight. I didn't mean to give you more work than necessary.”

“It's fine. If it weren't for dumbafts falling from things and breaking out in fights every so often I might not be needed here.” He assures with a small smile.

The room is silent for a few moments, save for the electric whirl of the machinery working to patch up Nemesis.

"Do you ever think about leaving Lucifer and just never coming back, Ambulon?" Nemesis asks to break the silence.

"Every Primus forsaken day." Ambulon sighs.

Ambulon fixes the last wire,closes the arm panel, and sets his tools down at his cleaning area.

"You're all done. Now come with me, oh and I'm going to have to scold you to keep up appearances so play along.” The medic warns before leading the Prime back to the waiting room and making him sit beside the other bot.

"Now listen close, both of you, I do not want a repeat of today from either you! I have a hard enough time as the only medic on Lucifer making sure everyone here doesn't offline themselves from working too hard or from a working accident! I do not need you two fooling around and starting senseless fights with each other when there are others that need my medical attention! Do you understand?"

“Yes, doctor." the larger mech sighs.

“Yes, of course.” Nemesis responds glancing over at the mech beside him.

"Good! Now I have to get back to work so stay out of trouble, both of you."

Ambulon leaves the medibay and heads back to the ship dock to make sure no accidents have happened while he was gone. Nemesis stands to leave but is stopped by the other mech hopping up and walking in front of him.

"Move." Nemesis’ tone is demanding and authoritative.

"Hey now, is that any way to treat a new friend?" Says the Decepticon.

"I don't make friends." Nemesis walks around him and out of the medbay.

“Obviously not with that attitude." The bot teases, following close behind him.

Nemesis keeps walking ahead in silence, trying to ignore the bot.

"I'm Damus, by the way."

"I don't care." Nemesis says with annoyance laced heavily in his voicalizer.

"I do, it's been many stellar cycles since I last had someone stand up to me and actually hold his own. It's quite impressive." Damus chuckled.

Nemesis kept walking in silence as Damus walked in tow, seemingly never shutting up much to Nemesis' annoyance, chattering on and on about seemingly nothing of real importance. Damus followed Nemesis until they reached the doors of Straxus' throne room.

"I suppose you have to get back to your post now, Prime. Let us hope my escorting you back was not in vain and you don't get smelted." Damus says with a smug look.

"Escort? I never asked you to tag along. And if anyone gets smelted it will probably be you for starting that fight." Nemesis scowls, turning to point a finger into Damus' chassis.

“Start? I didn't throw the first punch now did I?" Damus shrugs.

Nemesis lets out a growl before taking his servo away from Damus and opening Straxus' throne room doors.

“I suppose I'll see you around if you don't get offlined, Prime." Damus waves and makes his way down the hall back to the ship bay.

"I really hope not."

Nemesis enters his master's chamber and kneels before Straxus. "Everything on the ships are in excellent working condition master.

“Good, good. I saw your little display at the ship docks as well." As the words leave Straxus' vocalizer fear shoots through Nemesis' body and he tenses up.

"It was quite wonderful, I haven't been that entertained in a while." Straxus praises, "It's too bad the medic broke it up before one of you died, if he weren't our only medic I'd smelt him for it. Perhaps one day I can smelt him once we get another bot smart enough to fix myself and others."

Nemesis is relieved to hear that he isn't in trouble, but his spark sinks at the thought of losing Ambulon.

Nemesis goes back to monitoring the bots working. Hours pass by with nothing else exciting happening. Straxus finally relieves him of his post as many bots head back to their quarters for recharge. Nemesis leaves the throne room and heads down to his habsuite. He opens his door to the familiar dark purple walls and dark grey flooring and heads straight to his berth, ignoring the various datapads and journals piled on his desk he usually reads or scribbles in before recharge. He lays there on his berth, thinking about what Ambulon said. Thinking about how Ambulon said it. 

‘Every Primus forsaken day.’

“Soon,” Nemesis whispers to himself as he shuts his opics down,  
“I'll get us off of this planet soon.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nemesis worries for Ambulon and unfortunately has a few more run ins with Damus.

"I have a task for you today Nemesis." Straxus said as Nemesis entered the room.

"Oh? What is it master Straxus?" Nemesis asks walking towards his surveillance chair.

"I need you to find us a new medic."

Nemesis froze. "New medic? But master...we already have one?"

"This is such a shame Nemesis, but you know that feelings make you weak and weakness is not something I tolerate here." Straxus took a seat back on his throne and pressed the red button on the left of the throne's armrest.

"Goodbye Prime."

The floor opens, sending Nemesis and Ambulon's corpse plummeting towards the molten center of the planet as Straxus lets out a deep, unnerving laugh.

"Aaaahhh" Nemesis screams as he shoots straight up from his berth.

He takes a moment to calm down before looking around at his surroundings and realizes that he's in his own habsuite.

"A nightmare...just a nightmare...just another damned nightmare."

He feels he should be used to this by this by now, he has nightmares almost every time he recharges. How could you not, living on Lucifer?  
He gets out of berth and leaves his habsuite. The halls are quite as he slips out and sneaks down the hall to.

'Everyone is recharging. Good.’

He heads down the hall straight to Ambulon's room and knocks on the door. It slides open to reveal the medic yawning and rubbing an optic.

"Nemesis?" the medic q  
tilts his head, "It's late what are you?- Oh. You had another nightmare didn't you?"

“Yes." Nemesis looks down at his pedes.

"Can I st-"

"Of course. You know you're always welcome here." Ambulon moves aside from the doorway to let Nemesis enter his habsuite. 

Nemesis walks in and lays down on Ambulon's berth, face staring at the grey wall and the shelves filled with medical supplies, datapads, and miniature models. Ambulon closes and locks his door then makes his way back to his berth to join Nemesis. He lays down behind him and places one arm around Nemesis' chassis, taking the smaller bot's servo in his large one.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ambulon asks.

"No. Not tonight." 

Nemesis closes his servo around one of Ambulon's fingers, using his thumb to stroke it and nuzzles his face against the servo as he powers down his optics and drifts into recharge.

“Okay." Ambulon whispers, placing a small kiss on the top of Nemesis' head before snuggling his face to it and powering down his optics as well.  
\----------

Nemesis awakens face to face with the still recharging Ambulon and lets out a small chuckle as he presses his forehead to Ambulon's. He gently places a servo on Ambulon's head and rubs his thumb against Ambulon's cheek.

“Mmnn" Ambulon lets out in a sleepy haze.

Nemesis chuckles again, "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up." 

He lightly strokes Ambulon's cheek. Ambulon slowly powers on his golden yellow optics. 

"It's fine, I need to be up anyway." He raises up and presses a kiss on Nemesis' forehead before getting out of berth and getting himself ready to leave for the medibay.

"You better get up too love."

"Yeah, I need to get to the throne room before Straxus wakes up and get last night's footage." Nemesis says stretching and getting out of berth, "Hey...Ambulon?"

"Yes, Nemesis?" Ambulon pauses at the door.

“I...I lost you...that was the nightmare." Nemesis says with a grim look on his face.

Ambulon turns to look at Nemesis for a moment before his optics shift to the floor.

"Well...I'm here. And I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon." He says looking back up with a smile.

Nemesis gives a faint smile back and Ambulon leaves. He heads out not too long after Ambulon after making sure the coast was clear so no one would see him and makes his way to the throne room. He opens the security feed and manipulates it by replacing it with old feed to make sure there is no evidence of him entering or leaving Ambulon's room. He ejects the feed of him with Ambulon and sticks it in his subspace. After he finishes he leaves the throne room to head back to his own habsuite.

"Well well, you're up early Prime," A voice startles him as he walks past an open hall. He looks back to see Damus leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, “Good morning.”

“Oh, you again. What are you doing here?" 

"I could ask you the same thing Prime." Damus replies with a smirk.

"I get up early to check the security feed sometimes." 

"And why is that?" 

"It's my job." Nemesis responds with a tone of annoyance, "Now if you'll excuse me, I actually have important things to do, unlike some bots here." 

Nemesis begins walking away. Damus says nothing, optics focused closely on the Prime as he disappears down the hallway and turns to the right. Once Nemesis reaches his habsuite he heads straight inside to his dark grey desk and sits down. He runs a finger down a thick stack of datapads until he reaches one titled “Megatron: The Grand Decepticon Leader. Written By Lugnut.” and skims through it until he reaches the part he last stopped on.

He reads about Megatron's history and rule as Decepticon leader with such excitement! He was unfortunately stolen away before he could ever had the chance to meet the Decepticon leader but dreams of being able to stand and kneel before Megatron. He reads so many works about Megatron, about his life, his accomplishments, and he feels in his spark that Megatron would see him as worthy of being what he once was, what he was built to be, a general for the Decepticon army.  
He feels Megatron would respect him enough to give him his title back and let him lead Megatron's bots to victory against Autobots and other opposing forces. He feels that Megatron would be a leader worth working for and protecting, unlike Straxus. And just as important to him, he feels that he wouldn't have to hide his relationship with Ambulon in fear of it resulting in one or both of their deaths.

As Nemesis gets lost in the datapad and his own thoughts he hears a knock, snapping his attention to the door. He gets up with his datapad still in servo and walks over and opens it.

"Good morning again." Damus greets with a grin.

Nemesis slams the door in his face and walks back to his desk.  
Damus opens the door and lets himself in.

"That was very rude."

"It's also rude to come into someone's room without being invited." Nemesis says as he sits, "Now leave."

Damus ignores the mech as he looks around the room.

"Not much for interior decor I see." He snarks, looking at the bare dark purple walls and almost empty wall the only thing on them being more datapads.

"Master Straxus says useful Decepticons do not decorate." Nemesis says with more annoyance, "Now leave.

"Heh, is that the scrap he tells you? A Decepticon's usefulness is based on who he is and what he does, not what he lines his walls and shelves with." Damus remarks.

Nemesis says nothing. He focuses on his datapad instead, hoping that Damus will go away if he ignores him long enough.

"You have a lot of datapads, I'm surprised you can read." Damus’ tone is rather condescending as he rubs his chin and stares at the bookshelf.

Nemesis turns to the bot with an angry expression, "Why wouldn't I be able to?"

"I'd have assumed Straxus would've wanted to keep you dumb so he could manipulate you easier.”

"Master Straxus has no need to manipulate me because I am a loyal to him." He states. "Now leave."

"Now leave, now leave." Damus replies in a mocking tone, "You're a broken record Prime. Lighten up a little. Perhaps you should find a hobby...or at least a ladder so you can reach your top shelf."

Nemesis stands up and lays his datapad on the desk, he walks over to Damus and grabs the larger Decepticon by his arm in a firm grip and drags him towards the door.

"My my, you're strong for your size Prime." Damus notes, looking down at the bot's servo, "That's a firm grasp you have."

Nemesis practically throws Damus out of his habsuite, "And stay out!"

"Such a touchy one you are." Damus teases as he catches his balance on the wall. "By the way Prime, you're not a very good liar."

Nemesis growls and slams his door closed, quickly locking it before heading back to his desk. He tries to read more but he can't stay focused so he gets up and walks to the file cabinet beside his berth that he keeps locked. He pulls the key card to it out of his subspace and opens the first drawer. He shifts some datapads around until he finds a small button that opens a makeshift panel, revealing several security disks. He puts the footage he snatched earlier with the rest and hides the panel and button under the various datapads as he always does.

"Unless we get off of this planet soon I'm gonna have to start using the second drawer." He chuckles to himself.

He sits down on his berth to wait a few minutes before deciding to head back to the throne room. He peeks his head out of the door to make sure Damus is gone. Seeing that the coast is clear he makes his way down the hall to the throne room. As he starts to put in the code to open the door it slides open, Damus walks out and bumps in to him.

"Well well, fancy running into you again Prime." Damus laughs.

"What were you doing in the throne room?" Nemesis scowls.

“Just paying my respects to our leader. Last time I checked he welcomes anyone to come worship him so long as he isn't doing something too important."

Nemesis frowns and pushes his way past Damus to enter the throne room.

"Alright, I guess I'll see you later then Prime." Damus says with a smile as he waves goodbye to Nemesis.

Nemesis pouts at him and closes the door. He walks to Straxus sitting on his throne and kneels before him.

"Hello master Straxus." He greets.

"Prime, you are 10 seconds late!" Straxus yelled.

"I-I'm sorry master, it won't happen again, I promise!"

"It better not! Or I'll smelt you!" 

Straxus pulls the shock remote from his subspace and presses the button, causing Nemesis' collar to send thousands of volts through his frame. Nemesis screams out in pain and falls over, clutching his stomach. Straxus rises from his throne and walks down to kick the Prime in the side.

"Now get up and monitor the cameras!"

“Oof! Y-yes master Straxus."

Nemesis whines as he picks himself off the floor and drags himself over to the security chair. He sits down and begins looking at the various videos before his optics stop on the one just outside of the throne room. Damus was standing there, leaned against the wall beside the door. Nemesis lets out an angry grunt.

'Why the pit is he there? Doesn't he have something better to do?' He thinks to himself.

He looks to many different working area feeds in search of Ambulon. He can feel himself starting to panic when he can't find him but calms down as soon as he spots the medic in the in the storage room working on a bot's minor injury.

He watches the feed closely, keeping his optics focused on Ambulon, watching as the medic uses a small tool to quickly patch a small scrape. He pays close attention to the medic's large servos as he performs the procedure, thinking about how comforting those servos felt last night, and many nights before.

He's so focused on Ambulon that he doesn't notice the vent above his berth falling as something proceeds to knock off the footage to his habsuite. After a few moments the video comes back on to the vent shifting back into place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit longer than the first and I hope to make the next chapter this long if not longer.
> 
> Also I want to make it known that since this is a TFA fic and Nemesis is Optimus' clone he's the same size as Optimus,making him much smaller than everyone else on Lucifer.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nemesis Prime gets dragged into a trip he has no desire to go on.

Many hours pass as Nemesis kept a close optic on the video feed and occasionally filed reports. He also listened as other mechs came in and out of the throne room to pay respect to Straxus and bring more datapads for Nemesis to fill out.

Nemesis noticed Damus quickly approaching the throne room from the screen.

'Grand.' He thought to himself.

Damus dashed through the doors with a datapad in servo and headed straight to Straxus.

"My Lord, I have something urgent for you!" Damus exclaimed handing the datapad over.

Straxus take it and quickly reads through, expression changing from boredom to surprise.

"What? Damus, do you know if anyone is looking into this?"

"We just got the report my Lord, we are awaiting your orders."

Straxus lets out a grunt and slumps back in his throne, tapping a finger on the left armrest, "Gather a few mechs and look into it." He orders.

"Yes, my Lord." Damus bows before leaving the room.

Um...master, what is going on?" Nemesis asks swerving his chair around.

"There are reports of a strange surge of energy nearby. No one knows what is causing it yet."

"Oh? Do you think it's something we could use if we harness it?"

"Perhaps." Straxus rubs his chin.

Nemesis twirls his chair back around, takes a box of alloy sticks out of a drawer and gets back to work monitoring the screens.

A few moments pass by before Damus re-enters the throne room with another mech.

"My Lord, I know this is short notice but I would like to take Nemesis Prime with me on this mission." Damus requests.

Nemesis lets out a muffled "Mwhut?" after nearly choking on the alloy sticks he shoved in his mouth.

"And why is that Damus?" Straxus asks reclining back in his throne and folding his servos into each other.

"He was a general once, correct? Sure he's a little rusty after such a long time of being out of battle, but if there is any danger there it will do him some good to be in a real fight again, keep him tough. Plus his expertise in surveillance would definitely come in handy to this mission." Damus bargains.

"Hmmmm, you have some good points there."

Straxus leans forward before looking at Nemesis who is looking back and forth between him and Damus with a puzzled expression, alloy stick hanging from his mouth.

"It has been a while since he's been in a real battle, and I won't allow my men to become soft. Fine, you may take him with you."

‘Wow I can't believe that worked.' Damus thinks to himself.

“Hold on, can't I have a say in this?!" Nemesis demanded, standing from his work chair and making his way over to the throne.

"No. You will go with Damus and any other mechs under his command." Straxus ordered.

"Now wait a min-" Nemesis is cut off by the sight of an extremely large mech with two sets of arms suddenly standing in front of him.

"Thank you my Lord." Damus bows, "I've brought along Crucible to take Nemesis' post while he's gone." Damus says patting the large mech's side.

Nemesis looks at the mech, he's seen the blue, gold, and purple mech from the video feed but never interacted with him before. He always wondered why he had an extra set of arms on his waist and wonders why he was built that way and if it has something to do with his alt-mode. Crucible walks over to the video feed desk and sits in Nemesis' chair, it bends low as he sits in it, obviously made for smaller mechs like Nemesis instead. He hopes he doesn't come back to it smashed to pieces

"Uhhh... you know how to do this right?" He asks the mech.

"All I have to do is look at the screens and press some buttons occasionally, seems simple enough."

"Come on Nemesis, I have a few mechs ready and waiting on us." Damus says turning to the door to leave.

Nemesis looks back at Straxus before turning to leave with Damus.

"Oh and Nemesis,” Straxus says to bring the mech's attention back to himself, “Damus is in charge of this mission, you will follow his orders as soon as you step out of that door."

Nemesis' expression twists to something between disgust and betrayal.

"Yes master Straxus."

He joins Damus in the hall and turns his attention to a scrawny, but still taller than him, purple and grey mech with a what appears to be a mask on.

"Oh, I've seen him around on the monitors. Is he coming with us?" Nemesis asks pointing to the odd bot.

"Yes, this is Forestock. He's a good friend of mine and practically my right hand mech." Damus answers.

“I wouldn't admit personal attachments just outside of master Straxus' throne room if I were you, he might hear it."

“I wouldn't worry that much about it if I were you." Damus responds walking towards the loading bay with Forestock following close behind, “And you can drop the 'master Straxus' scrap amongst us friend, no need to make a sentence longer than needed here.”

"One, I'm not, nor will I ever be, your friend. Two, we are to say that to respect to our master Straxus.” Nemesis corrects as he begins to follow Damus.

"Oh? Master? Have you ever heard anyone else call him that?" Damus asks, tone sharp and annoyed.

"Well, no...he said I have to but I've never heard anyone else say it." Nemesis responds with mild confusion.

"There's a reason for that."

“And that would be?"

Damus doesn't respond.

Nemesis lets out an annoyed grunt, "Hey, answer me!"

"We're here." Damus says stopping in front of the loading bay doors, "I need to run in and get two mechs waiting in there for us, stay here with Forestock."

Damus entered the loading bay and Nemesis lets out another grunt of annoyance. He turns to the tall skinny mech, who had been awfully quiet this entire time.

"Soooo...how did you end up in this?" Nemesis asks, leaning against the wall, "Damus said you two are friends but I get the feeling he just calls everyone he talks to that."

The scrawny mech looked down at Nemesis in eerie silence, just staring, almost as if he could see through him.

“Oh, can you...can you even speak?"

Forestock nodded his head once but remained staring quietly and uncomfortably at Nemesis.

'Primus this guy is a freak, maybe he really is Damus' friend after all.'

"You uhhh... you wanna try-"

"Hey sorry for the wait."

Nemesis is cut off by Damus coming out of the loading bay with two other mechs in tow.

"Nemesis this is Scissorsaw," Damus says pointing to the large tan and red mech with a magenta X-shaped visor and a razor sharp chest, "And this is Amp." He points to the waving opticless red and gold mech that is slightly larger than Forestock and has tesla coils coming from his shoulders.

"Yeah I know about them from monitoring but uhhh… he doesn't have optics." Nemesis says pointing to Amp.

"But I do have audials." Amp states, "I can assure you I will be fine on this mission even if I can't see." He smiles directly at Nemesis, even though Nemesis is unsure how the mech knows which direction or angle to turn to.

“That's no-" Nemesis is suddenly cut off by Damus once again.

"Alright let's board the ship and go see what this thing is." He says with an enthusiastic clap.

"Ship? Wait...how far out is this surge?" Nemesis asks.

"It's in the abandoned city of Sheol. It's on the opposite side of Tartarus here." Damus replies.

"So we have to travel across the planet?”

"Yep. Won't take long with the ship though, we should only be gone for a few days so let's get started and head out."

"Can I...can I grab something before I meet you on the ship then?" Nemesis asks trying to hide his worried tone.

"Awww and here I thought you weren't a sentimental bot." Damus jokes, "But sure, we'll wait for you in the ship. Everyone else come with me so we can get the ship ready for departure."

Nemesis dashes off down the hallway as Damus, Scissorsaw, Forestock, and Amp walk in the opposite direction to head to the ship bay. Nemesis realizes he has to keep suspicion down so he enters his habsuite and quickly gathers a few datapads, shoving them in his subspace before making his way to the medibay.  
He opens the medibay doors and rushes towards Ambulon with a bit of a panicked expression on his face.

"Ah, Nemesis, I didn't expect to see you here today." Ambulon turns to the mech. "Wait... why are you running? Are you hurt?!" Ambulon asks worried as he extends his servos out to meet Nemesis' arms.

"No." Nemesis says backing away from Ambulon's grip, "Someone is watching the feed we can't do anything to arouse suspicion."

"Sorry. Then why are you running? Why do you seem so panicked?" Ambulon questions, hoping to find a way to calm his frantic sparkmate.

"I'm being sent on mission to Sheol on the other side of the planet, and I could be gone for a few days." Nemesis explains.

“Oh? Why would you be afraid of that? You were a general once, surely you've seen scarier things than abandoned cities."

"I'm not afraid of that! I'm... I'm afraid of leaving you behind." Nemesis says bowing his head with pouting lips.

"What if someone tries to hurt you while I'm gone...or worse? Or what if I don't make it back? I won't be able to get us out of here!"

Ambulon can't help but smile at the shorter mech.

"Oh Nemesis, I know there are some real scrap for processors here, but no one here is dumb enough to hurt or kill the only medic on Lucifer. And of course you'll make it back, as I said before you've seen worse than abandoned cities."

Ambulon walks over to a desk and pulls something out of a drawer. He lays one servo on Nemesis' shoulder and hands him a large vial of pinkish purple liquid.

“Here."

"What is it?" Nemesis asks taking the vial from Ambulon.

"Just energon. There's nothing special about it.”

Nemesis looked at the vial, slowly realizing that Ambulon is just putting on a show for the cameras, making this look like a quick doctor visit to throw that large mech taking his place off of any suspicions.

"Okay. Thank you." Nemesis smiles and stuffs the vial in his subspace.

“You are advised to come back unharmed though, doctor's orders." Ambulon says as he walks Nemesis to the door.

"I'll come back. Don't worry."

"I'm not. You were an army general, I know you can handle yourself, I just don't want any more work than necessary."

“Suuure." Nemesis chuckles heading out the door before stopping in his tracks to turn to Ambulon.

"Ambulon I...I lo-...I looo-."Nemesis stutters and trips over his words.

"Hmm? What is it?"

"I lo-...I loo-ok forward to seeing you when I get back."

Ambulon smiles, "I look forward to seeing you as well." 

Ambulon watches Nemesis' faceplate glow red before he leaves the medibay and rushes down the hallway.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nemesis joins the others on the ship and finds out he may have more in common with Damus than he'd like to admit.

Nemesis runs down the busy hallways to catch up with the others on the ship. He didn't want to leave them waiting too long, not because of Damus of course, but because he's afraid of what punishment Straxus might have for delaying the mission. He makes his way outside where he sees Damus leaning against a large, sleek, silver and purple ship with his arms crossed.

"About time little Prime. I thought you might have backed out and we'd have to leave you behind." Damus teases.

"Unfortunately I don't think I have the luxury of that option thanks to you." Nemesis responds in annoyance.

"You're welcome." Damus says with a smug smile, " Now let's get inside so we can take off."

The two mechs board the ship. Nemesis looks around in amazement at how well kept and beautiful the ship looks, not to mention it's just as big on the inside. The halls are wide, the walls and floors a shiny silver while the doors are various colors in metallic tones. Different color lights line along the walls as well and there is very little clutter laying around save for a few cargo boxes.

"Welcome aboard the Peaceful Tyranny." Damus says with his arms stretching wide as if he is making a presentation.

He takes Nemesis by the arm, "Come, I'll show you to your room on the ship."

The two mechs make their way to a blue door not too far from the cockpit, there is a purple door to the left of it and a red door to the right.

"The blue door is your room and the purple door beside of it is mine, the red door to your right is Amp's room. Across the hall is Crucible's room with the yellow door, Forestock's is the one that's green, and Scissorsaw's is the pink door. The other rooms are currently empty."

“Why are the doors different colors?" Nemesis asks.

"We just wanted them to be colors we liked." Damus shrugs. "I can changes yours if you like."

"No, blue is fine. I was just curious."

“Well go ahead and make yourself at home in there, I'm going to go tell Forestock and Scissorsaw we can take off now."

Nemesis watches as Tarn leaves down the hallway to the front of the ship. He opens the door to his temporary habsuite to find dark purple walls, shelves lined with various datapads, a desk, and a berth. He wonders if all of the habsuites on the ship look eerily like the one he has at home or if Damus is just trying to creep him out.

He goes over to the desk and pulls the vial and datapads out of his subspace and puts them in the desk's drawer. He can feel the ship shift.

'We must be taking off.' He thinks to himself. He goes over to his berth and lays down, looking up at the ceiling, wondering how Ambulon is doing and if he'll be okay. Thoughts of his dear sparkmate cloud his mind, some worrying, some calming, until he can no longer keep his optics open and drifts into recharge.

\----------

"So that runt is the guy you've been talkin' about, huh?" Scissorsaw asks, steering one of the yokes on the ship.

“Yeah, I think he'll be useful to us." Damus replies sitting in his elegant purple captain's chair.

"What if he doesn't agree to help us?"

"Oh he will, it's not like he's truly loyal to Straxus. But just in case, I have something to make sure he can't refuse us, thanks to Forestock."

Forestock just gives a thumbs up while leaning back in the weapons control chair.

"Oh those tapes? Of him and the doc?"

"Yep."

"Heh, I don't know which is more confusing, the doc settling for a runt like Prime, or Prime, who was built to be an unfeeling murder machine, finding love with a medic, someone who saves lives." 

"It is rather ironic isn't it? But life is full of surprises I suppose,” Damus says crossing his legs. "Still...I have to wonder what exactly went wrong with his programming to make him have feelings?"

"Maybe he hit his head one too many times." Scissorsaw chuckles.

Damus scoffs and rolls his optics.

"I suppose I should go check on him, see how our guest is settling in well in his room." He stands up to leave.

"Getting attached already? What are you gonna steal him from the doc?" Scissorsaw laughs.

"Doubtful, even if I did fancy him he doesn't seem to like me very much." Damus remarks before leaving the room.

\----------

Nemesis is awoken by a sudden knock on his door, jolting him awake to sit straight up. He grumbles to himself as he walks over and opens the door to see the opticless bot standing in the doorway smiling.

"Uhhhh...do you need something?" Nemesis asks.

"No, actually, I was coming to check on you to see if you needed anything."

"I'm good." Nemesis says in a monotone as he starts to shut the door.

Amp moves a pede into the doorway, keeping the door ajar.

"I insist, there must be something you need? Oil? Maybe a tour around the ship so you don't get lost wandering about?"

"No thanks." Nemesis uses his pede to shove Amp's out of the way and closes the door.

He hears another knock and sighs as he reopens the door.

"Look I don't-"

"Prime, buddy, it's rather rude to shut the door in the face of of a mech whose ship you're on." Damus says, one servo on Amp's shoulder with the other one palm out and directed at Amp as id to show him off.

“Wait...this is his ship? He can't even see how to fly it." Nemesis remarks in surprise.

"Still have audials." Amp responds sarcastically.

"Well, sorta. You see this ship belongs to all of us, Amp, Forestock, Scissorsaw, Crucible, and me. We all found it and fixed it up together so it's ours."

"Found it? What do you mean found it? If it was on Tartarus it belongs to master Straxus."

"Ugh, enough with that, you don't have to call him that when he isn't around!" Damus shouts, anger filled his normally calm voice, "And for your information this ship was completely wrecked! It was a disaster! Tossed aside after it's 'usefulness' had been used up! Just like what'll happen to you!"

"Shut up!" Nemesis shouts back swinging the door wide open, "My master wouldn't do that he'll always need me!"

Amp worriedly looks back and forth between the shouting bots, unsure how to calm either, so he slinks to the side towards a wall to let the two bots yell it out.

"Keep telling yourself that Prime, it'll be what ends you! Or Ambulon."

Nemesis is taken aback for a moment, unsure of what to say. How did he know this? How much does he know about this?

"What? What are you-"

"Drop the act." Damus says, cutting Nemesis off, "I know all about you and the Doctor, everyone on this ship does.

Nemesis's expression twists from shock, to fear, then to anger.

"If you even try to hurt him-" Nemesis begins to yell again, pointing a finger at Damus.

"It's alright, calm down." Damus s Nemesis' pointing servo in his own.

Nemesis jerks his servo away, "Don't tell me to calm down! Don't tell me what to do!"

"Considering your dear old master put me in charge I do get to tell you what to do, Prime. Now calm down, none of us on the ship have any intention of harming Ambulon or even telling Straxus about you two."

"I...I don't believe you." Nemesis looks away from Damus.

“Fair enough."

"Why would you even bring this up if you don't plan to hurt him?" Nemesis looks at Damus with confusion in his optics.

"To help you, Prime." Damus puts a servo on Nemesis' shoulder, "You want to get off of Lucifer don't you?"

"How did you know that?! I mean… no... I'm fine serving under my master."

No you're not!" Damus grabs both of Nemesis’ shoulders, "None of us are! There's a difference between being a tough, proud Decepticon and a slave master! He will never see any of us as equals! Pit, he'll never see any of us anything other than expendable slaves that he gets to abuse as he sees fit! We're nothing to him, not even worth a pebble under his pede!"

He lets go of Nemesis and looks down at the ground then back to Nemesis, "I'm tired of it. Of him. And I know you are too, Prime."

Nemesis stands there, mouth agape, he didn't think that he would agree so much with Damus of all bots. He knows in his spark that Damus and right though.

"That's why I brought you along with us, Prime. We have a plan to get off of this planet and go out to find the true Decepticon leader, the one we know we can serve under proudly, the one that is still true to the Decepticon cause, Lord Megatron."

Nemesis' optics light up. Megatron? He can finally have the chance to not only get off of this planet but to meet the real, true, Decepticon leader? A moment he's dreamed of for a long time? He's ecstatic! This is the best news he's heard in a long time and all the greatest possibilities this would bring run through his processor.

"Wait, if you have this ship then why haven't you left already?" Nemesis asks snapping back to reality.

"Well...we don't exactly have the power to leave yet." Damus responds, "We still haven't stocked enough fuel, for the ship or us, and we haven't figured out who all we'll be taking with us."

"Wait, so you plan on taking more with you?"

"Of course! I'm not gonna leave my fellow bots that want to get away from that glitch there to suffer."

“How do you know I won't tell Straxus about this plan?" Nemesis asks narrowing his optics.

"Because you hate him too. You were stripped of your title as army general and made errand bot, and if you stayed you'd have to keep your relationship ship with Ambulon a secret and I'm sure that's getting tiring."

Damus was right again, he does hate Straxus and he wants to stop hiding.

"Plus you just called him Straxus and didn't yell at me for calling him a glitch, you haven't reacted that way before in front of others so that's a pretty good indicator that I can trust you with this."

'Damn he's good. Can he always see through people like this?'

"And, if for some reason, you do decide to betray not only me and my crew, but your sparkmate too, I can bring up your relationship with Ambulon to Straxus and how you two want to leave the planet. I'm sure that glitch would see that as treason against him. And poor Ambulon would probably be angry with you, maybe even hate you, for going back on your promise in those last few moments of his before getting dumped in the smelting pit."

"So you're blackmailing me then?"

"Is it really blackmail if you want what's being offered, Prime?"

Nemesis looks away and takes a moment to think. This all does sound very promising, he'd finally be able to get Ambulon and himself away from Straxus. He looks back, staring Damus straight in the optics.

"Okay. I'll help you. But if...if I don't actually make it through the plan...you still have to take Ambulon with you."

"Of course. And you're going to make it Prime, I know you will."

“Now that we have that settled, let's show him around the ship Damus. Our new friend will need to know his way around." Amp says with an excited grin.

"Good idea, but you'll have to do it alone. I need to get back to the cockpit, we'll need two pilots going through the Valley of Hinnom and since Crucible isn't here Scissorsaw will need my help."

"Okay, come on Nemesis." Amp rushes over to him and grabs his servo to lead him along, "Stay close so you don't get lost."

"Oh, uhh...okay." Nemesis responds practically being dragged along by the opticless bot.

Damus crosses his arms and smirks as he watches the two bots disappear down the hall.

“You'll make it through this tiny, you were built for war after all. You'll be alright."

Damus then turns around and heads back to the cockpit.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nemesis gets to see the ship, learn a piece of Amp's past, and hears another part of Damus' plans.

“And this is where we keep the fuel and tools for the ship." Amp smiles while leading Nemesis through yet another room. 

It's been at least an hour since he started showing him around the enormous ship and Nemesis is ready for a break but this bot just keeps going, he doesn't see how he does this with no optics. How can he tell which room is the correct one? Nemesis takes a look around the room, seeing fuel cans placed in neat lines against the west wall and various tools hanging on boards on the east walls. He sees some paint cans along the north wall stacked on each other. There's a trolly to easily transport a lot of stuff in the middle of the floor and a a few boxes with Primus-knows-what in them along the south wall.

"When was the last time you refueled Nemesis? We can go to the refueling hall if you want." Amp pipes up, bringing Nemesis' attention to him.

"Oh um, it was before I got on the ship." Nemesis responds rubbing the back of his neck. He was getting kinda hungry now that Amp mentioned it.

"Oh then you'll need something soon, come on." Amp grabs his hand again and gently drags Nemesis to the refuel hall.

He sits him down at the end of one of the two black and purple tables. They're long enough to have eight chairs at both of them, three on each side and one at each end, and they have shining Decepticon symbols in the middle. The chairs are also black and purple and the back of them look like Decepticon symbols as well.

Nemesis scoots his chair up a bit farther, he's a bit too short to reach the top of the table so he positions his legs to where he can sit on them so he can reach the top.

"Looks like we'll have to make a taller chair." Amp chuckles.

Amp brings over two trays of chrome-alloy pie with forks in them and two cups of oil and takes a seat on the right of Nemesis.

"Hey uh...how can you see so well without optics?" Nemesis asks before picking up his fork and shoving a big bite of pie in his mouth.

“I don't." Amp replies.

"Then how do you know which room you're in? Or where to look when talking with someone? How do not constantly trip over things? And don't you work in the loading bay? How are you not offline?"

Amp laughs, "My aren't you an inquisitive one? Well, my coils and audials help me ''see'' in a way." He explains between bites and sips, "My coils let off a very low hum that isn't really noticeable to others, that hum will ''bounce'' off of objects or bots and I can ''hear'', or sense, what the object is, where it is, and how big it is. It's very useful and even helped me when I did have optics."

"Wait, so you actually had optics at one point?" Nemesis asks muffled as his mouth is stuffed with pie.

"Haha, yes, I did have optics before."

Nemesis swallows the pie, "What happened to them?"

"Straxus." 

Nemesis went quiet, he should have already known what the answer would be and yet he still felt a wave of terror.

"He took a spoon and scraped them out of my face, it took hours and it was agonizing. I had never felt any kind of pain that intense before and I have yet to feel any like that again.”

Nemesis looked down at his empty tray, wondering if something like that could happen to him or Ambulon some day.

"What...what was it punishment for?" Nemesis asks slightly looking up at Amp.

“Nothing." Amp paused for a moment, "He did it because he could, he was bored and needed some entertainment. I happened to be passing by him in the hall at the time and he ushered me into his throne room. He proceeded to chain me to the wall and pulled a spoon off of a table nearby that had torture devices on it. Then he began scraping away at my optics, digging them out in little chunks and ignoring my screams and calls for help."

Amp paused a moment. "No...he didn't ignore them, he drank in them. He basked in my pain, growing more satisfied with every scream I made. He left me on that wall for two days before calling in Ambulon to patch me up. Ambulon tried to help, he wanted to save my sight. He tried to piece my optics back together but some parts were missing so there was nothing he could do. We suspect Straxus ate the parts we couldn't find because they weren't on the throne room floor with the rest of the pieces."

"I... I'm sorry that happened to you. I never knew-"

"Do not worry about it, it was long before you ever arrived." Amp reassures with a smile.

"Still...I can see why you want to get off of Lucifer. It makes my reason look so...dumb."

"There are no dumb reasons for wanting to get away from Straxus. He could eventually torture you too after all, the piece of slag is rather unpredictable."

"I guess so."

Amp allows a few quiet moments to pass so he can finish his meal.

"If you're done refueling I can take you to the cockpit now."

"Sure." Nemesis gets up from his seat and waits for Amp by the door.

The two bots head out and make their way to the cockpit. Amp opens the door and ushers Nemesis to go first. Forestock looks back, leaning in his chair and waves at the two.

"Ah, Prime! Familiar with the ship now?" Damus asks looking back from a pilot's chair.

"Yeah I think I can make my way around now." Nemesis says looking around the room.

Amp takes a seat at one of the control panels near Vos and swivels the chair around away from the controls. Nemesis takes the seat next to Amp and looks around at all the buttons and levers.

"So how did you find this ship?" Nemesis asks.

"In pieces." Damus responds, "Some of it was in tact and we found a few pieces to patch back on. Some we had to make ourselves."

"How did you manage to sneak this past the cameras? And won't someone be suspicious if they see all the ships in the dock but know we're gone?"

"Same way you sneak your relationship with Ambulon. We wait until Straxus is asleep and then we replace the tapes early in the morning. And don't worry, since it looks like a basic fleet ship on the outside most bots won't care to count the ships docked."

It's a bit hypocritical but Nemesis is a bit annoyed that they managed to sneak around and mess with the tapes, it is his job to be aware of everything going on after all, though he feels like the more he learns about Damus and his crew the less he truly knows.

"Wait, is that how you found out about my relationship with Ambulon?"

"Pretty much. I did glance at one of those tapes one night but didn't think much of it at the time, I was tired and just wanted to get our evidence out of the way. After recharging and another day and night of work I decided to check that tape again only to find that you weren't on it. At first I thought maybe I had hallucinated it but then the same thing happened the next week. I figured out the door you were going to was Ambulon's so I pieced together what was happening."

"Why didn't you tell Straxus?"

"Wasn't my job to. Besides, I'd have to explain how I knew that, plus I've always hated the spawn of a glitch."

"We also figured it out fully after Forestock snagged those tapes from your room!" Scissorsaw pipes in.

"What?!"

“Don't worry we'll give them back to you once we're off Lucifer, we just needed them in case you didn't agree to help us." Damus responds looking kind of annoyed at Scissorsaw for his loose lips.

"Straxus." Nemesis looks down, "Was Jetlag a part of your crew before?"

"Yes. He was. He was a good Decepticon too, dedicated to the cause. And Megatron. Straxus didn't like that Jetlag corrected him on who the greatest Decepticon of all time was so he dumped him in the smelting pit."

"Figures. I bet if Megatron knew that Straxus makes us try to worship him and forget about Megatron he'd offline him." Nemesis scoffs.

"Heh, I'd love to see that happen." Scissorsaw chimes in.

"We all would." Amp says.

"Yeah." Damus responds, "But unfortunately Megatron isn't here. So it's up to us to give the glitch what he deserves."

"Wait... are you gonna offline Straxus?" Nemesis asks in surprise, "I thought the plan was to leave Lucifer?"

"Ideally we get to do both," Damus says, "I have a plan to offline Straxus and then leave."

"Why leave if you're gonna offline him?"

"Because I want to see Megatron. I want to serve Megatron."

Nemesis sits in silence a few moments looking at Damus. He can see a deep devotion in Damus' optics, one that rivals his own devotion to the Decepticon leader. He turns his attention straight ahead.

"Yeah. Me too."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nemesis and Damus' crew reach the Valley of Hinnom.

"Alright everyone, we're about to enter the Valley of Hinnom" Damus states firmly gripping his yoke, "Buckle up. No slacking off. Pay close attention. If one of you hesitates on an order we could all be offlined."

Nemesis and Forestock pay close attention to their gunner's monitors, ready to take the orders to fire at any time.

"Here we go!"

They come across a tall, wide, mountain like structure with a cave and dive into it. The cave is dark but short. They come out of the other end to find an enormous river of lava contained by walls of rock. There is a ceiling with bits of metal at the top that has holes in it so you can see glimpses of the sky. The lava is bright orange and yellow and flows along the bottom of the valley like water. They can see bubbles of lava form and pop on the top and rocks and scraps of metal fall from the ceiling, making the lava splash. The metal that falls in slowly bubbles and boils until it's melted away. Nemesis gulps, thinking about how painful it would be to fall in.

“We have boulders falling on the the left!" Damus shouts.

Forestock aims the gun up and blast at the boulders until he breaks them into small rocks that won't damage the ship.

"Good job! Scissorsaw you know what's coming up, let's turn the ship sideways!"

They come upon a spot where the walls are narrow with only a sliver of a hole to pass through. Damus and Scissorsaw maneuver the yokes to turn the ship sideways so that they can get through the hole with ease before turning the ship back upright again.

"More boulders on the left!"

Forestock shoots them with ease.

“There's some on the right now!"

Nemesis grips his gun controls tight as he aims up to break the falling boulders. He misses a few shots making the rocks a bit larger than desired. A large one hits the right wing, leaving a dent.

"Focus Prime!"

"I am!" 

Damus and Scissorsaw turn the ship again and fly through another narrow passage. A few boulders fall in front of them at angles that could cause them to crash into them.

"Boulders straight ahead! Forestock, Prime, you'll both need to shoot!"

Forestock and Nemesis both aim and fire. They smash the boulders to bits before they can collide with them, causing the rocks to splash into the lava.

"Great job everyone! Stay focused, we'll be out of here shortly!"

They continue to maneuver through the valley's narrow paths and falling rocks with ease. At least until a boulder that's twice the size of the ship begins to fall. It gets stuck between the narrow path in front of them.

"How are we gonna smash that, we don't have the time?!" Scissorsaw shouts.

"Prime, Forestock, aim your guns at the center and fire! Prime continue to shoot your guns up and down! Forestock you shoot yours left and right! We're going through it!" Damus commands.

Forestock and Nemesis follow his orders. They shoot until there is a spot carved out big enough to fly through but notice it cracking.

“Are we gonna be able to make it through before it breaks?" Nemesis asks Damus.

"Don't worry Prime you're riding with the best. Alright Scissorsaw, let's fly this through before the boulder breaks! Get ready to boost!" Damus responds pulling a lever.

Damus and Scissorsaw hit the turbo boosters and fly into the hole causing the others to tense up. They barely make it out before it breaks and falls into the lava. The team relaxes and slouches in their chairs, thankful that they're still online.

“Let's not let our guards down yet we still need to leave this valley." Damus says.

They continue through the valley, keeping close optics on boulders and crags before coming to another wide mountainous wall with a cave.

"That's the way out! Scissorsaw let's hit the boosters again, I'm getting sick of looking at this place."

They boost to the cave and enter. The cave would be almost as dark as the one they went through to enter the valley but small colorful crystals glimmer and glow, leaving a bit of light. They turn on the ship's light to guide them through the cave better. Nemesis stares in awe at the crystals, he's never seen anything like it.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Damus asks after noticing Nemesis' dropped jaw and optics filled with prototype-like wonder.

"Yeah." He replies in whisper, still focused on the glowing rocks.

“They're called gem crystals. They're special kinds of rocks and on some planets they're used for currency, other planets use them for decorations."

"So other planets have these?"

"Some of them. Not all of them are as bright as these because of the planet's environment. Some planets also have lava like the kind in the Valley of Hinnom."

"I'd prefer to avoid those planets then."

Damus lets out a low chuckle.

"Have any of you been to other planets before?" Nemesis asks.

"Yep, sure have!" Scissorsaw replies enthusiastic.

"We use to live on a planet called Delphi before the Autobots chased us off of it and made it a medical base," Amp says, "And Forestock lived on Cybertron before the war! He fought against Autobots and they tried to execute him but he managed to escape. He ended up fleeing to Delphi where he met Damus, Crucible and me."

"I lived on Delphi too." Scissorsaw pipes in," I mostly kept to myself there. Didn't talk to or see anyone."

"Why?"

“Didn't have much of chance to. I lived there for not even a stellar cycle before the Autobots chased us off the planet and took it over. I was usually busy most of the time before that though."

“Then where did you live before that?"

"Estella 21."

"I've read about that planet! There's always smoke in the air right?" Nemsis asks with excitement.

"Yeah, it's a glitch to fly through but on ground level it's fine." Scissorsaw pauses a brief moment before asking, “What about you Nemsis? Any other planets you were on?"

"I...I was made on a planet I can't remember the name of...I don't remember anything from it though, Straxus snatched me away not too long after I was brought online. The only place I've ever known as a home is Tartarus here on Lucifer." Nemesis responds with a hint of sadness in his vocalizer. "I've helped Straxus conquer other planets in the name of the Decepticon cause to set up trade and take slaves, but I've never really got to look around them. Or Lucifer either."

They continue to fly through the cave with ease, everyone talking about various planets they've heard of and would like to visit and conquer for Megatron. They end up coming across a source of light in the distance.

"That's the end of the cave, after we make it through here I'll put our coordinates in the ship and we can put it on autopilot for a while, I'll still stay here though." Damus explains, "You can all go rest once we're out."

They keep moving forward to the light. They see less and less crystals towards the exit.

"Hey there's something moving down there!" Nemesis says pointing to a dark but shiny blob.

The blob opens it's...wings, to reveal a small round body and face with glowing yellow optics.

"Mini predacon, looks like a battron. They usually come to the cave to recharge." Damus responds to reassure Nemesis they aren't in any danger.

"You mean there are things online on Lucifer outside of Tartarus?!"

"Well yeah. You didn't know that?" Damus laughs, "Guess Straxus isn't much of a teacher."

"He never told me and I never read about it in any datapad."

"He really doesn't tell you anything does he? I bet you wouldn't even know about Megatron if it wasn't for your datapads."

Nemesis sighs and looks down, "You're probably right."

Nemesis watches the mini predacon as it flies out of the cave. They follow behind it and it joins a flock of other battrons. Nemesis is starstruck by the sight of crumbling structures and the various mini predacons playing in the rubble of the forgotten cities.

“Which city was this?" Nemesis asks Damus.

"Styx." He replies, ‘This is the city we raided for parts a while back. Looks like there's more predacons now."

Nemesis looks around and sees turbofoxes roaming an empty street, battrons perching on the windowsills of old buildings, and boltwolves hunting for prey.

"Amazing sight huh Prime?"

"Yeah. I never knew an abandoned city could be so...incredible."

Damus smiles at Nemesis,  
"Alright guys you're dismissed, you can go rest up if you want, I'll take it from here.”

"Finally!" Scissorsaw stretches and gets up.

Forestock and Amp leave their seats and walk out together with Scissorsaw not too far behind.

“You know you can go too Prime."

"I...I want to stay for a bit longer." Nemesis says with optics practically glued to the window.

"Alright." 

Damus reclines back and decides to enjoy the view as well. It's not often that he gets to leave Tartarus anymore. The calmness puts his spark and processor at ease. A few moments pass before Nemesis breaks the silence.

“Why did you choose to come to Lucifer?"

"What?"

"I mean...there has to be other Decepticon ruled planets across the galaxy. Why didn't you go somewhere else?"

"When the Autobots attacked Delphi we tried to hold them back...a lot of bots on both sides were offlined. We eventually got outnumbered and had to retreat. All the ships set off distress signals. Straxus was the first one to answer so we came here."

"Do you wish you would have waited on another responder?"

"Of course. Any sensible bot does. Unfortunately, there are a few bots loyal to Straxus and are glad to be here."

"They're crazy then." Nemesis scoffs.

"Probably masochists too."

"What's a masochist?" Nemesis looks at Damus puzzled.

“You're kidding?" Damus says, raising up to look at Nemesis, "It's the opposite of a sadist. Someone who enjoys having pain inflicted on them. How do you not know this?"

"I've just never heard the word before." Nemesis responds trying to defend himself.

Damus laughs again, "Next datapad you get is going to be a dictionary."

"Hey!" Nemesis jerks forward in his chair. "I'm not an idiot!"

"Never said you were,” Damus leans back again, "but knowledge is a never ending journey my friend."

“We're still not friends." Nemesis pouts and crosses his arm, slouching in his chair.

Damus smiles, staring outside the front window at all the predacons playing and hunting as three of Lucifer's moons begin to rise across the horizon. Nemesis stares out too in silence before stretching in his chair and standing up

"I think I'll go back to room now. I better not wake up to one of you freaks standing over my berth." Nemsis says shooting a glare at Damus.

"Might want to consult Amp or Forestock about that Prime, not me."

Nemesis frowns and leaves the room. He heads down the hallway to his habsuite and locks the door behind him. He pulls out a datapad, his personal log, and begins to write the things that's happened. He makes a remark about getting one of those crystals for Ambulon in it, or maybe even getting a few to put around the room because maybe Damus is right about decorating. 

He looks around the room, it is spacious enough for both of them to live there, he will need to put another berth in of course. Nemesis doesn't even have much, just a few datapads so it won't take a lot of shelf space for his stuff. Ambulon has some models, datapads, and medical supplies but even with those there's still space for the crystals. He makes notes on how to arrange the furniture to Ambulon's liking before turning the datapad off and setting it on the nightstand beside the berth. He lays back down and powers off his optics and drifts into recharge.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nemesis anticipates their arrival at Sheol.

Nemesis opens his optics and looks around the room. 'Oh yeah...the airship.' he thinks to himself in a sleepy haze. He pulls himself out of bed and heads for the door. He opens it to bump into Forestock's leg as he towers over the smaller mech.

"Uhhh...hello?" Nemesis hesitantly greets.

Forestock stays completely silent, staring at Nemesis through his mask with his intense red optics.

'Freak.' Nemesis thinks to himself as he tries to move to the side. Forestock moves too, he keeps himself in front of Nemesis to block his path no matter which side Nemesis moves to.

"Do you mind?!" Nemesis bellows out in frustration.

Forestock slams his servos at either side of Nemesis, causing him to jump in shock. Forestock bends down to stare Nemesis in his optics, Forestock remains silent and focused on the smaller mech.

"What the frag do you want?!" Nemesis shouts at the masked mech,unfortunately the reply he gets is completely incomprehensible to him.

"I...I don't know what you're saying."

Suddenly the large mech is being lifted, to his surprise, and removed out of Nemesis' way by a much larger mech.

"Stop trying to creep the new bot out, you always do this." Scissorsaw says with an annoyed sigh to Forestock while holding him off the ground.

"Go on prototype I'll make sure he doesn't get in your way."

"Do NOT call me a prototype!" Nemesis huffs and stomps his pede.

"Heh, sure thing sparkling."

Nemesis grunts and walks away with his arms crossed and a pout on his lips.

He makes his way to the refuel hall and sees Amp and Damus already at a table with glasses of energon and alloy cakes. Nemesis notices Damus also has a datapad laying on the table that he seems very focused on.  
Amp hears Nemesis enter and waves at him and invites him to take a seat.  
Nemesis climbs the chair beside of Amp and sits on his legs again to reach the table. Amp gets up to go get Nemesis some food too from the silver and red kitchen across the room.

"Good morning Prime. Recharge well?" Damus asks without even looking up from the datapad.

"As well as I can knowing I have to be around you upon waking."

Damus lets out a low chuckle. "You really never quit with the snark huh? I bet you snark in your recharge too."

"I doubt it, I've never had to recharge with someone annoying."

"Not yet I'm assuming? Anything could happen after all." Damus smirks and shoots a quick glance at Nemesis before going back to reading.

Nemesis sticks his glossa out and makes a gagging sound. Amp comes back to the table with a plate of alloy cake and a glass of energon and sets them in front of Nemesis before sitting back down.

"So how did you guys get your servos on energon?" Nemesis asks as he begins to dig into his cake.

"Same way we get everything on this ship, we snuck it on." Amp responds gleefully.

"I can't believe you guys have enough tact to just steal things from Straxus without him noticing."

"For tools and what-not we usually make a shoddy replacement that breaks, then it's that bot's fault the thing is gone. As for fuels, we make replacements that taste bad."  
Amp cheerfully explains before downing his glass of energon and excusing himself as he takes his empty dishes back to the kitchen.

"So that's why things have been breaking a lot...you guys."

"Yep," Damus looks up from his datapad, "It's been us."

"But if you want others to join you when you leave why bother getting them in trouble?" Nemesis asks with his mouth full of alloy cake, "They're more likely to get offlined if Straxus thinks they've made a mistake."

"True, those bots may not survive, but I do have to look out for my crew first and foremost. I may not always like making those sacrifices but sacrifices are sometimes necessary for the bigger picture. Besides, those who do die won't be doing so in vain." 

"So anyone not in your crew is susceptible to becoming canon fodder to your plans?" 

"It is unfortunate yes, but that is life. Especially life on Lucifer." 

Nemesis stops eating and stares at his cake for a minute. "Do...do you think...could you do a favor for me?" He asks looking down at his fork as he twirls it around on the plate.

"What is it Prime?" Damus folds his hands together and uses them as a chin rest as he focuses on the fidgety bot.

"Could you...maybe make Ambulon a part of your crew when we get back?" Nemesis peaks up at Damus. "That way I'll know he'll be safe."

"Of course. Pit, I already consider you and him a part of this team so he'll be under our protection Prime."

"Thank you." A small, soft smile brushes over Nemesis' lips. Damus says nothing more on the subject as the two of them go back to finishing their food.

\----------

Nemesis spends the next couple of days either in his room or talking to Amp and Scissorsaw, occasionally Damus too but he prefers to only do that if he has to. Out of the four bots on The Peaceful Tyranny he sees Amp as the least annoying and he doesn't really mind Scissorsaw, he does wish Scissorsaw would stop patting him on the head and calling him "sparkling" and "protoform" though. He tries to avoid being alone with Forestock since, according to Scissorsaw, he likes to creep people out on purpose. Plus not being able to understand a word he's saying is a pretty big conversation killer.

On one of the days he asks Damus if they can make a stop in that cave on the way back so he can get a few of those crystals for Ambulon, to which Damus agrees. He then asks Scissorsaw to help him get a second berth in his habsuite once they get back, explaining that if he and Ambulon share a room there will be more space for other bots on the ship. He tries to act professional about it but Scissorsaw knows better and teases him about wanting his sparkmate in his room with him.

Nemesis ends up taking various notes on the things he can see outside of his habsuite's window. Mostly just rubbled structures and predacons with an occasional offlined bot or two. He wonders how they died and how long they've been that way. No one around to hold a proper funeral for them or even use their parts to restore injured bots.

He also passes the time by reading some of the datapads Damus left in his habsuite to get a better grasp of Cybertronian history, especially Decepticon history, and what to expect on other planets. He reads reports about organic planets and thinks he'd rather they avoid those planets if they can.

The ship stays on track for two days with Scissorsaw or Damus occasionally taking the helm to make sure their coordinates are correct. Around the third day Damus tells Nemesis that they're very close to Sheol and if everything continues to work correctly they'll be landing there tomorrow.  
Nemesis is of course relieved to find this out and hopes that they can find whatever is making that energy surge quickly.

He can't wait to get back to Ambulon and tell him about all the things he's seen out here. He wonders if he should tell Ambulon of Damus' plans too. It's something he'll have to think about, he wouldn't want to put Ambulon in any danger just in case Damus fails.

He decides to turn in early, wanting tomorrow to come as soon as possible. He figures they'll probably be landing by the time he wakes up so he lays on his berth staring at the ceiling a few moments before powering down his optics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter I have written for now so it'll be a bit before I update this fic again since I'm working on several other things at the moment but I can assure you I will be updating it.


	8. Chapter 8

Nemesis is awoken to the sound of knocking on his door. He jerks up out of bed and walks over to the door and opens it.

"Morning Prime." Damus greets leaning against the door frame.

Nemesis rubs his optics, "Are we at Sheol yet?"

"Yeah. You need to head to the armory to get yourself a weapon for the exploration."

"Armory? Why would we need extra weapons when we have some built into us?"

"Because we don't know what we'll find out there. For all we know the surge could be an Autobot distraction, they could've made their way onto the planet with plans to slag any Decepticon they find."

Nemesis thought for a moment. Damus had a point, they are in unfamiliar territory. And according to historical texts Autobots did attack Lucifer once, that's why most of the planet is rubble and the remaining Decepticons live in Tartarus.

"Alright I'll go get an extra weapon." Nemesis replies.

"Amp and Forestock will be able to set you up with what you need. Once you guys are ready meet me outside the ship." Damus gives his orders as he walks towards the ship's exit.

Nemesis starts to make his way out before stopping in the doorway. He turns around and runs over to his desk and takes the vial Ambulon gave him and shoves it in his subspace. He proceeds to make his way to the armory and sees Amp there outfitting himself with some blasters beside some boxes.

"Hey Amp," Nemesis greets, "I need some extra blasters."

"Oh of course. There on the left wall."

Nemesis walks over to the wall and grabs a blaster cannon. "Where's Forestock? Damus said he'd be in here?" He asks wrapping the blaster's belt around him.

Suddenly one of the boxes moves around, startling Nemesis. Forestock emerges with various grenades that he was digging around for and dashes out of the room.

"Oh..." Nemesis sighs in relief, "Wait... isn't he going to take a blaster?" He asks Amp after noticing that the only thing Forestock took was the grenades.

"He doesn't need one. He is a weapon." Amp replies with a grin.

"Well...yeah...we all are. But Damus said we might need extra weapons to."

"No no. He IS one. His alt-mode is a gun. He usually has Damus or Scissorsaw shoot him off."

"Oh...well that's...weird." Nemesis says faintly.

"You don't know the half it." Amp remarks, "Come on we should get going." Amp starts to leave the room

"Yeah sur- wait, we? You're going?" Nemesis asks in complete shock.

"Yes. Just because I can't see doesn't mean I can't explore. Echolocation, remember?"

"Oh, right. But it could still be dangerous, shouldn't someone stay on the ship?"

"Yes that's why Damus is having Scissorsaw stay behind, just in case we need to make a quick escape."

"So he's making you go and making the big guy stay behind?!"

"He isn't ''making'' me go, I want to. And Scissorsaw is a better pilot than I am considering driving this ship actually requires visual sight." Amp states before heading out the door.

Nemesis pauses, "Oh. I guess that makes sense." He shrugs and follows behind Amp. Both bots making their way outside to greet Damus and Forestock.

Nemesis looks around. The city is in complete ruin. The buildings are gray and rusted and falling apart. There's a dense fog covering the area making the sky look gray too. Nemesis always thought Tartarus was the most depressing place in the universe but Sheol could sure give it a run for it's shanix.

"Scissorsaw, this is Damus do you read me?"

"Loud and clear boss!"

"Alright good, comm links are working then. Stay in the cockpit and be ready to take off at any time, we don't know what we're going to find out here."

"Got it!"

Damus pulls out an odd looking device from his subspace. "This will lead us to the power surge." He says holding it out as it makes beeping sounds, “Let's move out."

The team sets off on a trail of dust and rubble, following the small beeps as they become stronger with every step.

Sheol is eerily quiet. The only sounds are their own pede steps and the beeping of the device. Yet Nemesis thinks he can hear something shuffling about behind them. He sticks close behind Damus and Amp. He can feel his spark pulse. He scolds himself for being afraid, he was a war general for frag sake he shouldn't be this terrified of nothing. 

They continue on, sometimes going through crumbling buildings to stay on track.

"What exactly happened here?" Nemesis finally breaks the silence.

"Autobots." Damus replies with a hint of malice, "They drove us onto this planet but it wasn't enough, they followed us here to eradicate us. A war broke out across this planet. Sheol was hit the worst, some kind of virus broke out and wiped out both Decepticons and Autobots here."

"Cosmic rust?" 

"No, something far worse. At least with cosmic rust you can live for a bit after catching it, this wiped out an entire city in one night."

"Did the rest of the planet get it too?"

"No, after Sheol had the outbreak the rest of the planet quarantined themselves the best they could. Most of the Autobots left after the outbreak. Some were left behind when their comrades presumed them dead and fled the city before they caught the virus. Some of the ones that were left were held to be tortured, some of them actually joined the Decepticons after their buddies abandoned them."

"Do you know anyone that was once an Autobot?"

"No. Once Straxus was given this planet anyone that was once an Autobot was thrown in the smelting pit."

"Why? If they truly switched sides why would they be smelted?"

"Because Straxus is a glitch."

They walk through more dusty and rusted buildings that have walls missing. Nemesis takes a good look around at the surroundings. Everything is so empty.

"Hey Damus?" Nemesis questions.

"Yeah?"

"If a virus wiped out this city, why aren't there any bodies?"

Damus stops, "That's a good question, Prime," he looks back at Amp and Forestock, "Have you two seen any bodies around?"

"No, I haven't picked up any offline bots within my electro field range." Amp replies looking at Damus in confusion.

Forestock simply shakes his head no. Damus frowns and looks around him. Nemesis has a worse feeling about this mission now. 

"Keep moving." Damus says, now on high alert.

They trudge on, now keeping close watch on their surroundings.

"What do you think happened to the bodies?" Nemesis asks.

"No idea." Damus responds.

"Perhaps some predacons ate them?" Amp tries to somewhat reassure his teammates.

Forestock responds with what sounds like gibberish to Nemesis.

"Yes, I suppose they wouldn't bother with a virus exposed corpse would they?" Amp responds to him.

Forestock speaks again and shrugs.

"I doubt they just got up and walked off." Damus remarks rolling his optics.

The beeping of the device gets louder with every step they take.

"We're close...very close."

The device is beeping almost wildly towards a huge blue building not too far in the distance. They can see that the building stands almost undamaged, save a few scuff marks, and they all look around at each other.

"How the pit is that place so...preserved?" Nemesis asks.

"No idea. Shouldn't be a surprise that that's the thing giving off such a powerful power surge I suppose." Damus responds staring at the structure, "Let's move out. We need to go inside, the surge is probably from a power core in the building." 

They make their way to the huge building. It's almost like a fortress! Damus and Forestock push open the doors and they all head inside. It's so...big! And a lot cleaner than they expected. There's dust but not a wall or floor tile or anything else inside is out of place.

"Do you think someone has been living here?" Amp questions turning to Damus.

"Possibly. Stay on guard, if someone is here they might attack."

"If someone is here then maybe they did something with the bodies?" Nemesis pipes in, "Like a burial or something."

"That's possible too."

Forestock speaks up as well.

"Yeah this place is big, but I'm not sure splitting up is the best idea." Damus says looking around the main entrance hallway.

Forestock speaks again.

"Prime can't understand you though."

Forestock then makes what Nemesis assumes is some kind of argument against the previous statement.

"Ugh, fine!" Damus says in an almost defeated tone, "Alright Forestock is right, we'll spend half a stellar cycle trying to search this place all grouped up so Amp and I will explore the left half while he and Nemesis will explore right half of the building."

"What? Why can't I go with Amp?" Nemesis sounds a bit distressed.

"Forestock requested specifically that you go with him."

Nemesis looks over to Forestock waving at him with a glint in his optics. Nemesis huffs and crosses his arms.

"Alright, stay close to your partners and don't get separated from them. And be very careful looking around, the place could be booby trapped." Damus commands, "Let's move out." He and Amp walk off to a hallway on the left.

Nemesis sighs and looks at Forestock, "You better not try anything!" He says pointing a finger at the mech. Forestock just lifts his hands in an almost sarcastic manner, though Nemesis can tell the gesture means that he means no harm.

They head in the opposite direction of Damus and Amp, thoroughly searching the halls and rooms they come across. The search is mostly quiet, with only the rustling of objects being moved and doors sliding open and closed being the only noises made.

"Shouldn't a power core or something be in a room with a label on it? All we've seen is offices, storage rooms, and meeting halls."

Forestock shrugs.

"Maybe there's a basement? or maybe we should head upstairs soon?"

Forestock nods, pointing to the end of the hall.

"Right, there's probably some stairs around there."

They head over and not only find some stairs, but an elevator too, though it seems to be out of order.  
They head up the stairs and explore the second floor. Ten hours pass by as they all continue to explore all the way up the 30th floor where they run into Damus and Amp in the main hall there.

"No luck huh?" Damus asks Nemesis.

"No. Are we sure there isn't a glitch in that device?"

"I'm sure. There's gotta be something more to this."

"This place is too big. We should just go home." Nemesis' tone is laced with defeat.

"No way! If we go back empty handed Straxus might smelt one of us!"

Nemesis sits down on the floor, "Searching this place is going to take forever though. There's only four of us. We should call in more ships to search."

"No! We do this on our own."

"But-"

"No buts! Get up and keep searching!" Damus’ tone is firm they can hear a bit of panic in it, "We need to find that power core!"

Amp walks over and puts a servo on Nemesis' shoulder, "Hey, don't mind Damus right now, he's just worried. We'll find that power core and be out of here before you know it."

“Worried? Why?” Nemesis asks.

“He told Straxus about this mission right? That's why we're even here.”

“Oh.” Nemesis looks down. It never crossed his mind that Damus was actually scared of Straxus, he knew he hated him but he never would have guessed that he was afraid with how he normally carried himself.

They press on, this time as a team, searching every nook and cranny, scanner beeping wildly every second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've started planning the chapters ahead of time so maybe I can write and update this fic more!


End file.
